HASTINGS, Fla. – It’s a safe bet most people don’t think of potatoes when they think of Florida. But the area around this unassuming town of 1,262 people has been spud country for more than a century. Now it’s another unlikely location for Florida’s newest bumper crop: Microschools.
Hastings is home to a new PreK-8 school, the Free Kids Academy. Founded by Becky and Jeff Cummings, it opened this fall in a century-old building that once housed the Hastings Potato Growers Association.
Free Kids Academy serves 62 students with an approach that’s heavy on student-directed learning, nature, and entrepreneurship. The ultimate goal: Happy, curious, resourceful kids who will chart their own paths.
“I just knew there was a need for something different,” said Becky, a former public school teacher. “We are a holistic school for conscious education. We believe we’re a school of the future.”
Free Kids Academy represents so many noteworthy trend lines in the state leading America in education choice and innovation that it’s hard to know where to begin. But for starters …
It’s a microschool. In Florida there is no official definition of “microschool” but families are flocking to small-scale options. The Sunshine State has hundreds of registered private schools that could be called microschools, plus hundreds of other entities – learning pods, homeschool co-ops, a la carte providers, etc. – that offer more personalized pathways.
It's a hybrid school. Ten of the students at Free Kids Academy are full time. The rest attend two or three days a week and homeschool the rest of the time. Nobody has a good handle on the number of hybrid schools in Florida, but they’re popping up all over, fueled by flexible, state-supported education savings accounts and parental demand.
It's teacher founded. Becky was a classroom teacher in Connecticut for seven years before leaving and starting her own tutoring company. She’s also the author of a popular series of children’s books. In Florida, hundreds of former public school teachers have established their own learning options, with more taking the leap all the time. Untold numbers of others are teaching in non-district schools, including two members of the Free Kids staff.
It's green. The students spend at least 90 minutes every day outdoors, on a half-acre of green space graced with oaks, palms, and sweet gums. Gardens and fruit trees are on tap. So are lessons with local farmers. “Being conscious is really taking care of Mother Earth,” Becky said. Florida’s mix of choice schools includes at least 40 “nature schools” and many more that stress a stronger connection to the land.
It’s rural. St. Johns County isn’t officially rural, but tilled fields and a tractor dealership are proof that suburbia hasn’t reached Hastings yet. Free Kids Academy is another example of choice thriving in rural Florida, in far-flung places better known for bears and oysters than education innovation. This, despite persistent myths that choice can’t “work” in these places.
The Cummings moved to Florida in 2018. They chose to settle where they did in part because the local school district is, on paper, one of the academically highest performing districts in the state.
For a variety of reasons, though, local schools turned out not to be a good fit for their children, now ages 15, 11, and 10.
They tried homeschooling. It was rewarding – but exhausting.
So, then they decided to do what is no longer unheard of among parents in Florida (see here, here, and here). They created their own school.
The Cummings initially gravitated toward a location in another part of the county. As word got out about their plans, the parents of 250 students put their names on a waiting list. Alas, that location fell through, which put the Cummings on an unexpected path to Hastings.
“We’re so happy and proud and excited,” Becky said. “But it’s a lot. You’re learning; you’re figuring things out as you go.”
The response from their own kids, though, and the families they serv, has made it all worth it.
“The kids, they’re happy; they’re smiling; they’re running to get into the door,” said Jeff, who was president of an aerospace company in Connecticut and now does everything from accounting to maintenance at the school. “Every day, somebody comes up to thank us. It’s beautiful.”
The school is drawing families from three counties and as much as 45 minutes away. The wait list isn’t as long as it was before, given the remote location, but it’s already starting to grow again.
Many Free Kids students couldn’t attend without the state choice scholarships. Becky said the school intends to serve even more of those families as it expands. The building can serve 100 students, 64 of them full time.
“Our intention,” she said, “is to have a free education for anyone who wants to be here.”
Ruth Worthington’s 7-year-old, Emma, struggled in her previous school, overwhelmed by large classes. Worthington said she became withdrawn and started hating school. Mornings became a battle.
Emma also had unrelated medical complications. So, Worthington homeschooled her for a year before enrolling her in Free Kids Academy three days a week.
It turned out to be “this little jewel,” she said.
In the smaller setting, Emma’s teachers have been able to learn more about her as an individual, Worthington said. The school also cultivates values that will serve students well throughout their lives, she said, including traits like self-sufficiency, collaboration, and kindness.
“They’re not just building students. They’re building people that will go out in the world and make a difference,” she said. Now Emma says, “ ‘I love school. I do fun things, and the next thing I know, I learned something.’ “
Noelle Binassarie’s 11-year-old daughter, Elly, also attends three days a week.
Elly is on the autism spectrum and has ADHD. Before Noelle began homeschooling in 2023, Elly attended district, charter, and private schools. The crowded settings and rigid schedules made her anxious, Binassarie said, sometimes to the point of nausea.
Free Kids Academy has been “a world of difference,” she said. She called the school “a work of heart.” It has the flexibility to adjust to Elly’s needs, and it’s shaping an approach around Elly’s love of art.
As one example, the school offered Elly the opportunity to teach her own art class.
“She’s a very quiet kid, so I wasn’t sure how it would go. But it’s given her motivation and drive and confidence,” said Binassarie, a stay-at-home mom whose husband is a firefighter. “She would never have had that opportunity in another school.”